EDITORIAL: We should learn from Venezuelan protesters | Editorials

Imagine a country where the head of government and his supporters take control of the Supreme Court.

Imagine a country where federal authorities prosecute and censor political opponents, depriving them of human rights such as freedom of speech without requiring government response.

We expect this from cheap dictatorships. Yet Americans see it firsthand when politicians and useful idiots pursue a former president and his closest advisers on charges no one else would face. We saw it in the politically motivated prosecution of President Joe Biden’s son.

Imagine a presidential administration that over-regulates oil and gas to the point that it discourages production.

We see all of this in the United States, but few people realize where it can lead if we allow this state of affairs to continue for long.

To understand the potential consequences of this trajectory, talk to Venezuelans who have fled the country for refuge in Colorado. Government officials say most of the more than 40,000 “new arrivals” are Venezuelans who lived under full-fledged socialism imposed by former President Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, for the past 25 years.

“Mr. Chávez,” explains a 2020 op-ed in The New York Times, “has fired nearly 20,000 oil professionals, nationalized foreign oil assets and allowed allies to loot oil revenues.”

“Queues at gas stations stretch for miles,” The Times reported. “… Near Venezuela’s vast coastal refineries, residents scavenge for firewood and fish in fishing nets for food. Their fishing boats are beached without petrol, and their kitchens have long lacked cooking gas.”

Americans rightly complain that inflation has reached 9% under Biden and the high prices that have persisted. Under Maduro, inflation has reached 2,000,000%—yes, 2 million percent compared with our 40-year high of 9%—destroying agriculture and leaving stores empty. Desperate for calories, Venezuelans have eaten zoo animals and pets.

By blocking oil and gas production, overturning checks and balances, and prosecuting dissenters, the two socialists have turned a South American paradise into a regulatory hell that has caused 7 million people — a quarter of the population — to flee.

That’s why on Sunday, some 4,000 Venezuelan immigrants living illegally in the U.S. rallied outside a Target store in Aurora, firing shots into the air, after Maduro declared victory in a highly suspect election over reform candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

Before Election Day, polls showed Gonzalez winning by nearly 60 percent. All day, exit polls showed voters crushing Maduro. Venezuelans gathered in Aurora to celebrate. Then, voilà!, Maduro declared victory, and the celebration went badly.

“Chávez and his supporters have sought to concentrate power, seizing control of the Supreme Court and undermining the ability of journalists, human rights defenders, and other Venezuelans to exercise their basic rights,” Human Rights Watch explains.

Maduro continued and intensified Venezuela’s socialist course.

Despite all the well-conceived constitutions, as former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia taught a Gazette editorial board member, no country can maintain human rights without a free population, separation of powers, private enterprise, and the energy to sustain it. Attacking any or all of these leads to economic and social despair.

Given our country’s open borders, of course the victims of oppression flock here. Of course dysfunctional governments send criminals here in desperation to manage the chaos. Of course we will take on the problems we have worked so hard to avoid for almost 250 years.

The United States cannot repair countries ruined by socialist authoritarianism and redistribution. We can and should enforce our federal constitution, enshrining three separate but equal branches of government in a state of constant constructive conflict.

We can and must protect this constitutional republic of law. This involves controlling our borders while learning from those who risk their lives to violate them.